Creepy is dropping you accurately into the appropriate sexual-orientation bin within a few seconds of displaying a generic beach photo.

Creepy is being completely unable to get through a paragraph of content, because the sidebar ads are continually tuning themselves to maximize eye contact based on your particular responses.

Creepy is some douchebag's "funny video" site that persistently displays a flittering, pulsing icon that always skitters away from wherever you're looking -- it's always in the corner of your vision, with nothing you can do about it.

Creepy is all the news stories that you never see any more, because the provider's systems have "optimized" your newsfeed for the stories that get the most of your attention, carrying it along to the embedded ads.

See, the problem with eye-tracking is that it's a big honking pipe into your preconscious cognition. You're constantly spewing a huge amount of information concerning what you're thinking about -- worse yet, what you're about to be thinking about, because the eye motion happens well before the thought crosses your conscious mind.

But, of course, that's also the best thing about eye-tracking, the thing that will bring us a much bigger quantum leap in usability than even the so-called "direct-manipulation" UI. "Mind-reading" interfaces? With good eye-tracking, we don't need no stinking electrode caps or implants.

I just hope the bigger gains are in making computers easier for us to use. And not, you know, the other way around.

Good thing this isn't penis tracking technology, because then you'd get the idea I enjoy Brazilian tranny porn.

Creepy is dropping you accurately into the appropriate sexual-orientation bin within a few seconds of displaying a generic beach photo.

Creepy is being completely unable to get through a paragraph of content, because the sidebar ads are continually tuning themselves to maximize eye contact based on your particular responses.

Creepy is some douchebag's "funny video" site that persistently displays a flittering, pulsing icon that always skitters away from wherever you're looking -- it's always in the corner of your vision, with nothing you can do about it.

Creepy is all the news stories that you never see any more, because the provider's systems have "optimized" your newsfeed for the stories that get the most of your attention, carrying it along to the embedded ads.

See, the problem with eye-tracking is that it's a big honking pipe into your preconscious cognition. You're constantly spewing a huge amount of information concerning what you're thinking about -- worse yet, what you're about to be thinking about, because the eye motion happens well before the thought crosses your conscious mind.

But, of course, that's also the best thing about eye-tracking, the thing that will bring us a much bigger quantum leap in usability than even the so-called "direct-manipulation" UI. "Mind-reading" interfaces? With good eye-tracking, we don't need no stinking electrode caps or implants.

I just hope the bigger gains are in making computers easier for us to use. And not, you know, the other way around.

Good thing this isn't penis tracking technology, because then you'd get the idea I enjoy Brazilian tranny porn.